WISA researcher Paul Parker from Waterloo’s Faculty of Environment demonstrated his skill and fascination with solar powered flight by placing third at the Canadian National Gliding Championships, held July 26 through August 4 at the Southern Ontario Soaring Association (SOSA) airfield in Rockton, Ontario.
Paul is a previous winner of the contest, and this time he flew a two seat glider, the Duo Discus, so that he could take younger pilots along to share the joy and challenges of glider competitions with them. Sean, Dan, Michael and Malcolm took turns flying with Paul.
In total, 22 pilots from Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and Michigan participated in the contest. Fifteen pilots were in the class that Paul flew in. Details of the contest results are available at soaringspot.com.
Gliders use rising air in thermals that form when the sun heats the ground and the ground heats pockets of air that rise up. Clouds often form at the top of thermals, and pilots use them to plan their path. Typical heights during the contest were 3,000 to 5,000 feet above ground level. Another thermal marker is birds, so Parker enjoyed spotting an osprey soaring at 4,000 feet to mark a column of rising air. At that height, the osprey is not fishing, but enjoying the free lift offered by the thermal.
Gliders gridded at the Nationals
The gliding contest consists of a daily task set, with southern Ontario towns such as Oshweken, Stratford and Elora used as turnpoints for the pilots to fly 200 to 300 kilometres and return to their launch point. The fastest speed around the course wins the day. Actual speeds are handicapped or adjusted according to the performance of each glider type so that older gliders can compete with new designs. For example, the Duo Discus that Paul flew has a handicap of 113 compared to 100 for a Jantar. That means that the Duo Discus has to fly 13% faster to gain the same score. Actual speeds are up to 100 kilometres per hour for top gliders on strong days, but may be half that on weaker days.
If a pilot is not able to find enough rising air, they land at local airports, or sometimes, farmers’ fields. In these cases, they are given distance points for the portion of the task that they were able to complete. Total points are a combination of speed and distance points.
If you only get distance points the total is much smaller, so pilots try to avoid landing out. The winner of Day 1 landed out on Day 2. The winner of Day 2 landed out on Day 3. The overall champions were pilots who made it home each day. On Day 3 only half of the pilots completed the task as thermal conditions were weaker in the smoky haze, and patience was required to climb slowly and make progress around the course. Paul’s flight lasted over five hours, but he showed patience and perseverance.
Gliders also have an important connection to today’s e-planes. Gliding requires planes that are strong and lightweight as well as designs to minimize drag and maximize the glide ratio, or distance flown for given height. These lightweight composite construction techniques are now used for electric plane manufacturing. Pipistrel, the manufacturer of the Velis Electro e-plane, started their electric aviation product line in 2007 with an electric glider, the Taurus, as they developed the components that led to today’s e-plane. Coincidentally, the weight of the Velis Electro e-plane and the Duo Discus glider is the same at 420 kilograms. However, the glider’s 20-metre-long wings are twice the length of those on the Velis (10 metres). Longer wings enable you to capture more of the energy from solar heated rising air, or thermals.